LINE 


THE 


SIEII 


The    Hoosier    Lincoln    learning    wisdom    be- 
tween the  furrows  of  the  field. 


Lincoln 
The  Hoosier 


A  restatement  of  some 

facts  that  too  many  folks  seem 

to  have  forgotten 


^ 


An  honest  tale  speeds  best, 
being  plainly  told. 

—SHAKESPEARE 


DONE  INTO  PRINT  AT  INDIANAPOLIS 

in  September 
1927 


Abraham  Lincoln 

The  Hoosier 


BRAHAM  LINCOLN,  the  six- 
teenth President  of  the  United 
States,  came  to  Indiana  when  he 
was  between  seven  and  eight 
years  of  age.  With  his  parents, 
Thomas  Lincoln  and  Nancy 
Hanks  Lincoln,  and  his  sister  Sarah,  he 
became  a  citizen  of  the  state  in  the  year 
1816.  Indiana  remained  his  home  until 
1830.  The  fourteen  years  covering  the 
most  impressionable  period  of  a  man's  life 
w^ere  spent  in  Indiana.  Lincoln  was  a 
Hoosier.  This  is  steadily  gaining  in  recog- 
nition. 

^  The  Lincoln  family  left  Kentucky  be- 
cause continual  conflict  over  land  titles 
made  success  in  farming  very  difficult. 
They  also  wanted  to  get  away  from  slav- 
ery. Contrary  to  a  belief  which  has  been 
current,    Thomas    Lincoln    had    not   been 


[7] 


time  before.  He  had  staked  out  a  quarter 
section  of  land.  He  raised  a  pile  of  brush 
on  the  four  corners  of  his  160  acres  to  in- 
dicate to  any  chance  passerby  that  it  had 
been  claimed  under  the  laws  of  the  time. 
Later  he  was  to  go  to  Vincennes  where 
the  Federal  Land  Office  was  located,  and 
to  secure  a  patent  for  his  holdings. 

A  rude  log  hut  was  hurriedly  construct- 
ed before  the  mild  winter  of  Southern  Indi- 
ana could  make  life  too  uncomfortable. 
Even  at  this  tender  age,  for  Abraham  was 
not  eight  until  February  12  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  an  ax  was  put  into  his  hands. 
Lincoln  tells  about  this  in  a  sketch  which 
he  v/rote  in  1860.  Rails  which  he  split  as 
a  young  man  played  an  important  part  in 
his  election  to  the  Presidency,  so  it  is 
small  wonder  that  he  tells  this  fact  among 
the  few  acts  of  his  youth,  which  he  thought 
important. 

The  Lincoln  farm  lies  in  what  is  nov/ 
Spencer    County,    about    seventeen    miles 
north  of  the   Ohio   River.     Lincoln   City 
now  covers  practically  the  entire  tract  of; 
land  for  which  Thomas  Lincoln  got  a  gov- 


[10] 


The  Hoosier  cabin  home  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
from  a  drawing  made  in  1860  while  the  cabin 
was  still  standing. 


ernment  patent   some   ten  years  after  he 
had  settled. 

Indiana  became  a  state  of  the  Union  the 
same  year  that  the  Lincolns  came  to  live 
in  it.     While  the  low  rolling  hills  which 


[11] 


time  before.  He  had  staked  out  a  quarter 
section  of  land.  He  raised  a  pile  of  brush 
on  the  four  corners  of  his  160  acres  to  in- 
dicate to  any  chance  passerby  that  it  had 

been  claimed  under  the  laws  of  the  time. 
Later  he  was  to  go  to  Vincennes  where 
the  Federal  Land  Office  was  located,  and 
to  secure  a  patent  for  his  holdings. 

A  rude  log  hut  was  hurriedly  construct- 
ed before  the  mild  winter  of  Southern  Indi- 
ana could  make  life  too  uncomfortable. 
Even  at  this  tender  age,  for  Abraham  was 
not  eight  until  February  12  of  the  follow* 
ing  year,  an  ax  was  put  into  his  hands. 
Lincoln  tells  about  this  in  a  sketch  which 
he  v/rote  in  1860.  Rails  which  he  split  as 
a  young  man  played  an  important  part  in 
his  election  to  the  Presidency,  so  it  is 
small  wonder  that  he  tells  this  fact  among 
the  few  acts  of  his  youth,  which  he  thought 
important. 

The  Lincoln  farm  lies  in  what  is  nov/ 
Spencer  County,  about  seventeen  miles 
north  of  the  Ohio  River.  Lincoln  City 
now  covers  practically  the  entire  tract  of 
land  for  which  Thomas  Lincoln  got  a  gov- 


[10] 


The  Hoosier  cabin  home  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
from  a  drawing  made  in  1860  while  the  cabin 
was  still  standing. 


ernment  patent  some   ten  years   after  he 
had  settled. 

Indiana  became  a  state  of  the  Union  the 
same  year  that  the  Lincolns  came  to  live 
in  it.     While  the  low  rolling  hills  which 


[11] 


they  selected  for  their  home  were  covered 
with  virgin  forest,  there  was  a  considerable 
number  of  people  living  in  the  state  at 
that  time.  In  1820  the  state  had  almost 
150,000  people,  largely  clustered  along  the 
Ohio  River. 

The  first  two  years  of  Abraham's  life  in 
Indiana  were  of  great  importance  to  him. 
They  were  the  last  two  years  he  was  to 
know  the  guiding  influence  of  his  mother. 
Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  was  in  her  early 
thirties  when  the  family  moved  to  Indiana. 
She  had  been  three  times  a  mother.  Her 
second  son  she  had  left  sleeping  in  a  Ken- 
tucky burying  ground.  Sarah  was  two 
years  older  than  the  future  President. 

Thanks  to  a  few  months  at  school,  and 
to  the  efforts  of  the  mother,  Sarah  and 
Abraham  had  learned  to  read  and  to  write. 
The  books  in  the  simple  home  were  indeed 
few,  but  they  were  of  the  sort  which  stamp 
their  impress  on  a  child's  mind  for  life. 
First  of  all,  was  the  Bible.  Lincoln's  writ- 
ings and  his  speeches  throughout  his  life 
show  his  familiarity  with  the  Scriptures, 
which  he  first  learned  to  read  and  to  know 
at  his  mother's  knee  in  Southern  Indiana. 


[12) 


A  typical  trail  through  the  woods  near  Lincoln 
City  probably  unchanged  since  the  boy  Lincoln 
was  a  familiar  figure  of  that  vicinity. 


[13] 


One  of  the  sentiments  of  Lincoln  most 
frequently  quoted  is,  "All  that  I  am  or 
hope  to  be,  I  owe  to  my  angel  mother." 
This  testimony  he  gave  when  in  the  White 
House. 

The  spring  and  summer  of  1817  at  least 
a  portion  of  the  farm  was  cleared  and  a 
small  crop  planted.  At  that  time  there 
was  little  in  the  way  of  diversion.  It  is 
safe  to  believe  that  many  days  and  long 
days  of  labor  were  put  in  by  father  and 
son  in  the  hard  work  of  cutting  down 
trees,  using  some  of  the  logs  in  building 
the  cabin,  and  in  splitting  up  or  otherwise 
disposing  of  the  rest  of  them. 

Only  in  the  evening  could  the  hours  be 
given  to  reading  and  study.  It  was  at  such 
times  that  the  quiet  cabin  was  lighted  into 
the  night  by  shavings  and  pine  knots,  for 
even  candles  were  not  to  be  burned  except 
on  rare  occasions.  It  is  these  hours  that 
have  delighted  romancer  and  historian 
alike.  Fancy  pictures  the  mother  smooth- 
ing the  way  as  far  as  she  might  for  the 
tall  young  son,  whose  ambition  to  know 
was  so  unusual,  when  compared  with 
youths     of     the     countryside.       Probably 


[14] 


Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  never  knew  how 
well  derived  was  her  boy's  love  of  knowl- 
edge. Only  in  late  years  has  che  Lincoln 
lineage  been  well  established. 

This  mother  who  meant  so  much  lo  the 
future  President  was  one  of  several  victims 
of  an  epidemic  which  laid  its  hand  on  the 
community  in  the  fall  of  1818.  The  dis- 
ease was  known  as  **milk  sickness."  It 
seems  to  have  come  from  drinking  milk 
from  the  animal  which  had  eaten  a  poison- 
ous plant.  Its  visitation  was  swift  and 
terrible. 

Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  was  ill  only  a  ievv 
days.  She  knew  that  death  was  near,  so 
she  called  her  children  to  her.  She  told 
them  that  she  was  going  away  and  asked 
them  to  grow  up  trusting  in  God  and  lov- 
ing one  another. 

Lincoln  was  always  tender  hearted. 
This  trait  did  not  desert  him  even  in  the 
trying  days  as  President.  One  may  imag- 
ine how  his  young  heart  grieved  at  the 
sudden  death  of  his  mother,  and  how  his 
anguish  v/as  aggravated  by  the  fact  that 
he  himself  had  to  assist  in  all  the  prepara- 
tions for  the  funeral.     A  rude  coffin  was 


[15] 


made  from  lumber  cut  out  of  logs  by  a 
whip-sav/  and  put  together  with  wooden 
pegs. 

They  buried  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  on 
a  hill.  It  is  a  mark  of  respect  which  peo- 
ple in  simple  times  always  have  paid  to 
their  dead — to  bury  them  on  the  top  of  a 
hill.  There  was  no  ceremony  at  the  house ; 
there  was  no  ceremony  at  the  grave.  This 
was  not  through  any  lack  of  respect,  not 
to  any  lack  of  desire.  There  were  few 
preachers  in  the  country  in  those  days.  In 
that  sad  hour  none  was  at  hand. 

Young  as  he  was,  Abraham  felt  the  need 
and  the  propriety  of  some  memorial  cere- 
mony. He  contrived  a  letter  to  a  preacher 
he  had  known  in  Kentucky,  asking  that  he 
come  to  their  home  and  preach  a  sermon 
in  memory  of  his  mother. 

It  was  not  until  the  following  spring 
that  this  was  possible.  In  the  meantime 
the  dread  malady  had  claimed  several 
other  victims  and  there  were  other  mounds 
clustered  around  that  of  Nancy  Lincoln, 
on  the  knoll  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
the  south  of  where  the  cabin  stood. 
Friends  gathered  'round  from  all  the  coun- 


[18J 


An  artist's  conception  of  the  funeral  services 
of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  conducted  several 
months  after  her  burial  in  the  fall  of  1818. 


117] 


tryside.  They  could  not  know  that  in  years 
to  come  men  and  women  from  all  oarts  of 
the  world  would  stand  with  heads  uncov- 
ered, above  this  simple  grave,  and  pay  a 
silent  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  mother 
and  her  remarkable  son.  The  simple  rec- 
ognition of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln  by 
friends  and  neighbors  on  that  day  has  be- 
come a  nation-wide  tribute  in  this. 

The  death  of  his  mother  was  the  first  of 
many  tragedies  that  cast  a  lengthening 
shadow  across  Lincoln's  life.  As  a  healthy 
boy  he  recovered  in  time  the  natural  poise 
of  his  mind,  but  at  intervals,  as  long  as 
he  lived,  he  had  moods  of  deep  melancholy. 

There  vv^as  a  period  during  which  his 
sister  made  a  valiant  struggle  to  take  the 
place  of  her  mother.  Probably  she  did  not 
quite  succeed  in  the  management  of  house- 
hold affairs.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
brother  and  sister  continued  to  live  as  their 
mother  had  prayed  they  might. 

The  up-hill  struggle  continued  about  a 
year  and  then  Thomas  Lincoln  returned 
for  a  brief  visit  to  Kentucky.  When  he 
came  back  he  brought  a  new  wife,  Sarah 
Bush   Lincoln,   who   had   been   previously 


[181 


r\^'l 


A  sketch  of  what  is  called  "The  Lincoln  MilV 
near  his  Indiana  home. 


119] 


married  to  a  man  named  Johnston.  She 
brought  her  own  family  with  her.  From 
then  on,  the  household  was  larger,  the  in- 
fluences were  more  varied,  and  life  a  little 
easier. 

The  new  Mrs.  Lincoln  brought  with  her 
a  few  comforts  and  conveniences  which 
the  home  had  not  enjoyed  to  that  time. 
Here  again  the  Lincoln  history  proved  the 
exception,  for  the  stepmother  both  loved 
and  was  loved  by  the  Lincoln  children. 
Mrs.  Lincoln  lived  to  see  her  stepson 
elected  President  of  the  United  States, 
The  father  died  in  1851. 

There  are  a  number  of  anecdotes  told  of 
young  Lincoln.  One  which  he  recounts, 
relates  to  shooting  a  wild  turkey.  It  was, 
he  says,  the  largest  game  he  ever  killed. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  was  too  tender 
hearted  to  make  a  good  hunter.  There 
was  much  game  in  the  neighborhood. 
Bearskins,  deerskins,  and  other  spoils  of 
the  chase  were  among  the  articles  sent  out 
of  the  country  in  payment  for  those  things 
which  the  pioneers  could  not  make  for 
themselves. 

An  incident  which  might  have  changed 


(3«] 


Cliffs  above  Rockport  where  Lincoln  worked 
as  a  young  man. 


121] 


the  face  of  American  history  was  an  acci- 
dent to  Abraham  which  occurred  when 
he  was  kicked  by  a  horse  he  was  riding  at 
a  mill  to  which  he  had  carried  some  grain 
to  be  ground.  He  was  unconscious  for  a 
long  while  and  there  seems  to  have  been 
some  doubt  whether  or  not  he  would 
recover. 

From  time  to  time  there  were  a  few 
short  weeks  of  school.  Lincoln  says  that 
nothing  more  than  a  knowledge  of  read- 
ing, writing,  and  an  ability  to  cipher  to  the 
rule  of  three,  ever  was  expected.  Anyone 
v/ho  knew  the  least  bit  of  Latin  was  con- 
sidered a  marvel.  All  accounts  make  out 
Lincoln  to  have  been  exceptionally  quick 
as  a  student.  He  says  that  his  schooling 
scarcely  amounted  to  a  year,  taken  all  to- 
gether. Yet  he  did  learn  to  read,  wrote  an 
unusually  good  hand,  and  had  more  than 
an  average  knowledge  of  mathematics. 

As  time  went  on,  he  borrowed  every 
book  of  which  he  heard.  The  earlier  books 
which  he  read  included,  besides  the  Bible, 
Aesop's  Fables,  Murray's  English  Reader, 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  Robinson  Crusoe,  and 
later  Weem's  Life  of  Washington,  History 


[22J 


of  the  United  States,  and  a  book  of  the 
Revised  Statutes  of  the  State  of  Indiana. 
None  of  these  hardly  could  be  called  ex- 
citing. All,  however,  were  a  fine  back- 
ground for  the  more  diversified  reading  he 
was  to  do  later  in  life. 

What  was  decidedly  unusual  in  those 
days,  was  a  teacher  who  attempted  to  give 
lessons  in  manners  and  deportment,  as 
well  as  in  reading  and  writing.  Long  years 
afterward,  they  delighted  to  tell  stories 
about  Lincoln's  awkwardness  in  attempt- 
ing to  make  himself  to  do  what  were  con- 
sidered the  polite  things  in  those  days. 

As  Lincoln  grew  older  and  the  farm, 
with  the  aid  of  the  boys,  got  into  better 
shape,  Abraham's  services  were  required 
by  other  neighbors.  The  usual  wage  for 
this  sort  of  work  was  $.25  a  day.  Thomas 
Lincom  had  been  a  carpenter  as  well  as  a 
farmer  in  Kentucky,  and  at  least  some  of 
the  skill  he  tried  to  pass  on  to  his  son. 

Thus,  whether  it  was  splitting  rails,  or 
acting  as  a  carpenter,  or  plowing  the  field, 
Lincoln's  services  were  in  good  demand. 
It  is  during  this  period  that  they  tell 
stories  of  his  reading  books  between  plow- 


[23] 


ing  rows  of  corn  or  later  at  night  by  the 
light  of  shavings,  after  others  had  gone 
to  bed.  There  are  still  in  Southern  Indi- 
ana cabins  for  which  Lincoln  is  supposed 
to  have  hewn  the  logs,  sawed  the  floors, 
or  built  part  of  the  furniture.  Research 
has  proved  that  many  of  these  claims  are 
more  or  less  imaginary.  Very  little  of  the 
original  Lincoln-day  construction  now 
remains. 

The  very  shores  on  which  Lincoln 
landed  in  Indiana  have  been  washed  into 
the  middle  of  the  Ohio.  The  several  court- 
houses which  he  visited  as  a  boy,  Boones- 
ville,  Rockport,  and  Troy,  have  burned  or 
been  pulled  down.  Here  and  there  are 
trees,  particularly  cedars,  of  sufficient  age 
that  Lincoln  may  have  seen  them.  At 
Rockport  the  nohle  sandstone  bluffs  that 
rise  more  than  a  hundred  feet  from  the 
river's  edge  must  be  today  as  Lincoln  sav/ 
them,  fo*  they  have  not  changed  in  hun- 
dreds of  years. 

As  a  boy  of  fourteen  years,  Lincoln  be- 
gan to  imitate  the  preachers  and  public 
speakers  he  had  heard.  His  playmates 
used  to  get  him  to  make  stump  speeches. 


[24J 


'^4'/, 


^^yf' 


The   site   of   Jones*   store   and   first   Indiana 
school  att&nded  by  Lincoln  near  Gentryville. 


At  that  early  age  he  began  to  talk  against 
cruelty  to  animals  and  to  men.  Before  he 
left  Indiana,  he  had  made  speeches  in  fa- 
vor of  temperance,  and  written  an  article 
on  it  for  a  publication  in  Ohio. 

As   he    grew   older,    Lincoln    showed   a 
great  interest  in  the  proceedings  at  the  sev- 


t25) 


eral  courthouses,  which  he  could  reach  by- 
walking  or  riding  fifteen  or  twenty  miles. 
At  Boonesville,  he  first  heard  a  brilliant 
young  lawyer,  by  name  Breckenridge,  but 
not  to  be  confused  with  the  statesman  of 
the  same  name  in  Kentucky. 

Lincoln's  first  actual  contact  with  the 
law  seems  to  have  come  about  1826.  At 
that  time  he  was  acting  as  a  ferryman  at 
Anderson  Creek.  To  accommodate  some 
people  who  wanted  to  get  on  board  a 
steamer  out  in  the  Ohio  River,  he  rowed 
them  out  in  his  boat.  As  they  got  aboard 
the  larger  craft,  he  inquired  rather  diffi- 
dently what  he  was  to  have  for  his  pains 
and  one  of  them  threw  a  silver  dollar  into 
the  bottom  of  the  boat.  Lincoln  says  it 
was  the  largest  sum  he  had  ever  received 
for  himself  up  to  that  time. 

The  event,  however,  was  not  to  be  with- 
out its  sting.  Lincoln  was  Ferved  with 
papers  from  a  Kentucky  Justice  of  Peace. 
Ke  was  charged  by  the  Dill  Brothers  with 
operating  a  ferry  without  a  license.  The 
case  is  recorded  in  the  Kentucky  courts. 
Lincoln  seems  to  have  been  his  own  at- 
torney and  to  have  gone  free  on  the  de- 


[28] 


Site  of  the  ferry  landing  at  Rockport  where 
Lincoln  embarked  for  his  first  fiat  boat  trip 
to  New  Orleans, 


[27] 


fense  that  he  did  not  ferry  anyone  across 
the  Ohio  River,  but  only  out  into  the  mid- 
dle of  the  stream.  This  did  not  require 
him  to  have  a  Kentucky  license.  This  is 
the  first  court  record  in  which  the  name 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  appears. 

While  living  in  the  Anderson  Creek  val- 
ley, Lincoln  undoubtedly  cut  wood  to 
serve  as  fuel  for  the  passing  steam-boats. 
He  also  is  said  to  have  raised  a  crop  of 
tobacco  and  sold  it  for  the  New  Orleans 
trade.  Here,  too,  Lincoln  must  have  heard 
about  and  possibly  may  have  seen  the 
great  General  La  Fayette.  For  La  Fay- 
ette's boat  was  wrecked  in  the  Ohio  River 
at  Rock  Island,  just  a  few  miles  above 
Troy  in  the  year  1825. 

Rockport  is  only  a  few  miles  down  the 
river  from  Troy.  During  Lincoln's  day  it 
became  the  county  seat  and  grew  rapidly 
in  importance  as  the  result.  Here  Lincoln 
came  with  produce  for  shipment,  brought 
from  the  interior.  Here  he  came  to  know 
one  of  the  great  lawyers  of  his  day,  John 
Pitcher.     Here  also  he  came  to  know  the 


128} 


Gentryville    as    it    must    have    been    during 
Lincoln's  young  manhood. 


[2i)] 


first  of  several  young  women  who  had  an 
influence  on  his  life. 

This  young  woman  was  Ann  Robey.  It 
was  only  a  school  boy's  interest,  but  the 
refining  and  stimulating  power  made  itself 
felt.  In  after  years  Miss  Robey  was  fond 
of  telling  how  Lincoln  by  pointing  to  his 
eye,  had  helped  her  in  spelling  the  v/ord 
"defied"  in  a  spelling  contest.  Lincoln 
had  the  reputation  of  being  the  finest 
speller  in  all  Southern  Indiana. 

So,  too,  Lincoln  explained  to  Miss 
Robey  that  it  was  not  the  sun  and  moon 
which  set,  but  that  the  earth's  revolving 
make  them  seem  to  set.  Thus,  apparently, 
Lincoln  had  arrived  at  some  knowledge  of 
astronomy,  which  certainly  was  not  taught 
in  any  of  the  schools  of  his  day. 

If  Miss  Robey  is  correct  in  her  recollec- 
tions, and  there  is  no  good  reason  to  doubt 
it,  Lincoln  at  that  tim.e  had  access  to  un- 
usual books  or  had  gained  the  knowledge 
from  newspapers. 

Rockport  and  Gentryville  were  among 
the  communities  which  Lincoln  visited  on 
his  return  to  Indiana  in  1844.  He  was 
then  making  speeches  for  Henry  Clay,  can- 


[30] 


didate  for  President.  In  these  places  he 
found  friends  of  his  boyhood  days.  In 
Rockport  the  old  hotel  where  he  spent  the 
night  still  stands.  At  the  points  where 
he  had  friends,  there  was  great  rejoicing. 
The  fourteen  years  that  had  passed  had 
not  lessened  Lincoln's  love  for  Indiana. 
Those  friends  were  real  friends.  The  boy- 
hood efforts  at  speaking  had  developed 
into  the  skill  of  the  trained  orator.  Mem- 
ory of  these  things  still  lingers  in  the  hills 
of  Southern  Indiana. 

It  was  this  visit  and  the  memories  which 
it  brought  back  to  him  that  moved  Lincoln 
to  one  of  the  very  few  efforts  at  verse 
which  are  authentically  recorded.  They 
were  published  under  the  heading,  "Mem- 
ory." These  stanzas  selected  from  the  en- 
tire poem,  will  shov/  its  trend: 

"My  childhood's  home  I  see  again, 
And  sadden  with  the  viev/; 
And  still,  as  memory  crowds  my  brain. 
There's  pleasure  in  it  too. 

O  Memory!  thou  midway  world 

'Twixt  earth  and  paradise. 
Where  things  decayed  and  loved  ones  lost 

In  dreamy  shadows  rise, 


(311 


And,  freed  from  all  that's  earthly  vile. 
Seems  hallowed,  pure,  and  bright, 

Like  scenes  in  some  enchanted  isle 
All  bathed  in  liquid  light. 

As  leaving  some  grand  waterfall. 

We,  lingering,  list  its  roar — 
So  memory  will  hallow  all 

We've  known,  but  know  no  more. 

Near  twenty  years  have  passed  away 

Since  here  I  bid  farewell 
To  woods  and  fields,  and  scenes  of  play, 

And  playmates  loved  so  well. 

The  friends  I  left  that  parting  day, 

How  changed,  as  time  has  sped! 
Young  childhood  grown,  strong  manhood  gray, 

And  half  of  all  are  dead. 

I  range  the  fields  with  pensive  tread. 

And  pace  the  hollow  rooms, 
And  feel  (companion  of  the  dead) 

I'm  living  in  the  tombs." 

Finally,  it  was  at  Rockport  that  the  first 
great  adventure  of  his  life  became  possible. 
He  vi^as  engaged  by  a  neighbor  to  assist 
his  son  to  take  a  flatboat  down  to  New  Or- 
leans. Even  today,  with  towns  and  vil- 
lages along  the  entire  route,  this  is  a 
considerable   trip   not   without   adventure. 


132] 


Scene  of  the  old  grave  yard  at  Little  Pigeon 
church,  the  burial  place  of  Sarah,  sister  of  AbrOr- 
ham  Lincoln. 


[33] 


How  much  more  thrilling  must  it  have 
been  in  the  days  before  1830,  when  the 
only  means  of  propelling  the  boat  were  a 
couple  of  hand  sweeps  and  when  for  days 
together,  they  might  not  see  anyone  with 
whom  they  could  exchange  greetings. 

This  is  the  trip  when  Lincoln  made  that 
first-hand  acquaintance  with  slavery  and 
particularly  with  the  selling  of  slaves, 
which  made  him  the  undying  foe  of  that 
institution  until  he  was  able  to  do  away 
with  it  by  the  "Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion." Of  slavery  he  was  later  to  say,  "If 
I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit  that  thing,  I  will 
hit  it  hard." 

One  of  the  points  of  influence  in  Lin- 
coln's life  whilre  he  lived  as  a  citizen  of 
Indiana  has  now  completely  passed  away. 
This  was  the  settlement  known  as  Jones- 
boro,  about  two  and  one-half  miles  from 
the  Lincoln  cabin.  Here  was  a  store,  and 
here  was  a  school;  and  one  of  the  cross- 
state  roads  passed  near  by.  To  the  store 
and  one  close  by  at  Gentryville,  in  the  eve- 
ning came  the  men  and  boys  of  the  neigh- 
borhood. Here  gossip  was  exchanged. 
Here  public  questions  were  debated  as  in 


1341 


i(l//r/]i 


The  old  cathedral  at  Vincennes,  one  of  the  last 
bits  of  Indiana  seen  by  Lincoln  as  he  crossed 
the  Wabash  for  the  Illinois  shore  in  1830.  It 
."till  stands. 


[35] 


all  country  stores  in  all  the  small  commu- 
nities of  this  land.  Here  Lincoln  learned 
the  give  and  take  of  political  argument. 
Here  he  occasionally  acted  as  a  clerk. 
Here  he  had  access  to  the  regular  news- 
papers of  the  larger  communities,  particu- 
larly Louisville. 

In  the  meantime,  his  sister  had  grown 
up,  had  married  Aaron  Grigsby,  and  had 
died  in  1828.  Her  body  rests  today  in  the 
little  yard  of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Old 
Pigeon  Creek — a  church  which  her  father 
and  her  brother  had  helped  to  build. 

Lincoln  had  almost  grown  to  manhood. 
He  was,  as  he  says,  almost  six  feet  four 
inches  in  height.  In  trials  of  strength  with 
those  of  his  age  and  older,  he  had  proved 
himself  a  superior  man. 

His  father  had  relinquished  to  the  Gov- 
ernment part  of  his  farm  and  now  held 
but  eighty  acres.  Brilliant  reports  were 
coming  to  them  of  the  fertility  of  land  in 
Illinois.  Thomas  Lincoln  probably  did 
not  know  that  for  four  generations  the 
Lincolns  had  been  born  in  one  state,  mar- 
ried in  another,  and  died  in  a  third. 
Thomas   Lincoln   was   only  preparing  for 


[56] 


The  William  Henry  Harrison  tnansion  at  Vin- 
cennes  as  it  looks  today  and  as  it  looked  in  1830 
to  Lincoln  enroute  to  his  new  Illinois  home. 


1371 


the  fulfillment  of  the  destiny  of  his  race. 

So  a  contract  of  sale  was  drawn  up  and 
the  Gentrys  later  came  into  possession  of 
what  is  historically  known  as  the  Lincoln 
Farm,  the  farm  which  for  fourteen  years 
was  the  home  of  the  sixteenth  President, 
the  home  where  the  various  influences  that 
make  character  were  steadily  at  work. 
The  family  prepared  to  leave  the  familiar 
scenes  and  the  little  knoll  to  the  south  of 
the  cabin,  where  sleeps  Nancy  Hanks 
Lincoln,  and  her  neighbors,  victims  of  that 
peculiar  malady. 

A  team  of  oxen  and  an  ox-cart  sufficed 
for  the  family  on  its  pilgrimage.  The 
neighbors  gathered  round  and  said  a  sad 
farewell.  The  Lincolns  had  become  gen- 
uinely liked. 

Slowly  they  took  their  way  westward 
and  northward.  At  Vincennes  they 
stopped  for  the  last  time  in  Indiana.  There 
Lincoln  could  not  have  failed  to  see  the 
new  cathedral,  its  tall  thin  spire  standing 
out  high  above  all  the  other  buildings  of 
that  time.  Here  also  he  must  have  visited 
the  home  of  General  William  Henry  Har- 
rison, a  building  of  such  magnificence  and 


[38] 


>fe  <?: 


Old  house  at  Rockport  where  Lincoln  stopped 
when  he  returned  to  Indiana  in  18^4. 


[39] 


beauty  as  he  could  never  have  seen  with 
the  possible  exception  of  the  days  he  spent 
in  New  Orleans.  Here,  certainly,  he  saw 
a  printing  press  for  the  first  time  in  his  life. 

Vincennes  also  was  the  oldest  town  in 
Indiana  that  Lincoln  had  ever  visited.  He 
could  hardly  have  known  the  romantic  his- 
tory of  that  city  except  in  a  general  way. 
But  it  is  such  a  place  and  such  a  history 
as  must  have  kindled  his  imagination  and 
left  with  him  a  fine  and  permanent  picture 
of  Indiana  as  he  passed  out  of  it  in  1830. 

In  Indiana  he  was  leaving  behind  the 
burial  spot  of  his  mother.  He  was  leaving 
the  scene  of  his  first  efforts  at  labor  and 
at  scholarship.  Here  he  had  hewn  great 
timbers  and  split  rails.  Here  he  had  de- 
livered his  first  addresses;  here  he  had 
written  his  first  articles;  here  become  im- 
bued with  his  first  ambitions  of  service 
and  achievement.  Here  he  had  known  his 
first  great  sorrow.  Here  he  had  first 
thrilled  to  the  touch  of  a  woman's  hand. 
Here  he  had  caught  his  first  glimpses  of 
the  greater  world  as  it  went  by  on  the 
bosom  of  the  great  Ohio.  Here  he  had 
learned  to  labor  and  to  wait,  to  earn  his 


[40) 


r^^  3^  on 


T'Ae  gitiei  grave  of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln 
showing  the  simple  stone  erected  by  P.  E. 
Studebaker  in  1879. 


t41J 


bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  to  look 
the  world  in  the  face  and,  unashamed,  to 
ask  of  it  a  just  recognition. 

When  he  crossed  the  Wabash  and  went 
into  Illinois,  it  was  to  take  up  a  new  life 
of  struggle  and  hardship,  which  was  to 
run  for  full  thirty  years  more  before  the 
final  recognition  came. 

When  that  recognition  came  it  was  of 
those  sterling  characteristics  of  honesty, 
sincerity,  simplicity,  and  truth,  which  he 
had  learned  in  the  lap  of  Southern  Indiana 
which  had  been  taught  him  by  his  mother 
and  enforced  in  the  simple  society  of  which 
he  was  a  part. 

The  glory  of  Lincoln's  achievements  as 
a  statesman  for  some  years  blinded  many 
to  the  underlying  forces  of  his  history. 
Now  that  his  life  is  being  studied  in  the 
perspective  of  the  lengthening  years,  men 
everywhere  are  coming  to  recognize  the 
validity  of  the  claim  that  "Lincoln  was  a 
Hoosier." 


142) 


THOSE  who  have  greatly  achieved,  are 
those  who  have  responded  to  charac- 
ter, to  ideals,  to  truth  and  to  convictions. 
Character,  ideals,  and  convictions  come  in 
youth.  The  man  who  does  not  love  truth, 
honor,  virtue,  patience,  and  zeal  from  early 
manhood  is  not  guided  by  them  in  trying 
hours  of  supreme  need  that  come  in  after 
years.  Men  may  gain  knowledge  in  later 
life,  but  a  passion  for  the  virtues  comes 
only  in  the  days  of  youth. 

Character  made  Lincoln  great.  His 
character  received  its  definite  bend  and 
form  from  the  influences  that  surrounded 
him  in  the  State  of  Indiana.  The  impress 
of  home,  of  mother,  and  of  kin;  the  hold 
of  nature  and  of  out-of-doors ;  the  influence 
of  books;  the  power  of  friendships  and 
associations;  and  the  first  strong  call  of 
the  great  world  left  their  lines  upon  his 
soul  while  it  was  wax.  When  it  had  hard- 
ened to  the  grim  need  of  after  years  those 
lines  were  found  graven  in  granite.  The 
world  knows  and  admires  in  Lincoln  the 
virtues  he  learned  in  the  lap  of  Southern 
Indiana. 


[43J 


Few  mothers  who  have  made  history 
have  been  so  badly  treated  by  that  history 
as  the  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
America  observes  almost  as  a  leg^al  holi- 
day what  it  knows  as  Mother's  Day.  Yet 
in  the  recognition  which  made  enduring 
history,  America  does  little.  No  encyclo- 
pedia, no  stated  book  of  reference,  so  much 
as  lists  the  name  of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln. 
Enshrined  in  the  simple  glowing  tribute 
of  her  son,  "All  that  I  am  or  hope  to  be,  I 
owe  to  my  angel  mother,"  there  is  a  trib- 
ute which  authors  and  writers  have  em- 
broidered into  books. 

But  what  she  did  to  glorify  all  mother- 
hood and  what  it  means  to  give  a  man- 
child  to  the  world  that  the  world  may  be 
a  better  place  in  which  to  live,  still  is  with- 
out recognition  as  the  world  has  come  to 
term  "recognition."  When  Indiana,  claim- 
ing her  own,  honors  Lincoln  and  couples 
with  this  honor  due  recognition  of  her  who 
shaped  his  mind  and  body  to  the  purpose 
of  Almighty  God,  recognition  of  mother- 
hood will  have  a  new  meaning  not  only  in 
Indiana  but  in  the  whole  wide  world. 


[44J 


eOOKWALTER-BALL-GREATHOUSf 

PRINTING   COMPA  NY 

INOIANAPOi-IS 


